Book Review: Napoleon by Andrew Roberts

About:
Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts is a biography of the famous general and statesman. Mr. Roberts is a noted British historian and award winning author.

  • 976 pages
  • Publisher: Viking Adult
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0670025321

The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy of this book –to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post

My rat­ing for Napoleon: A Life5

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Thoughts:
Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts is an interesting and thought provoking biography of this unique man. Mr. Roberts has gotten a hold of more than 33,000 private letters which were recently released and, as any fresh material does, caused historians to analyze and reflect upon the subject.

The author’s astute understanding of the material has provided the book with a fresh take on a man that so much has been written about. Mr. Robert’s understanding of the times and personalities helped him convey that information in a clear, concise manner which kept this book relatively short (considering Napoleon’s notoriety and achievements).

This book does not treat Napoleon as a hero or a villain, instead it tries to undo myths and tales concerned with its subject (on the first few pages I learned that Napoleon wasn’t short, but actually a bit taller than the average Frenchman), nor does it put him on a pedestal. Mr. Roberts treats his subject as a person worthy of studying, a multi-layered persona who was a great military leader, as well as a patron of the arts, an extraordinary tactician, and a more then capable administrator and manager.

The most fascinating aspect of the book, for me, was Napoleon’s personality and psyche. Born in Ajaccio, Corsica he always knew he wasn’t French and spoke French with an accent. Napoleon was deeply hurt when he found out Josephine had cheated on him, but later had no problems taking on over 20 mistresses. It was amazing to read how much different General Bonaparte was from Napoleon the politician, if I didn’t know better I could have mistaken them for two different people, this is a point which the author brings forth several times.

The book is a well researched biography which reassesses this famous man which is easy to read and includes many photos and maps for the reader to follow along with the narrative.

Buy this book from in paper or elec­tronic format*

More Books by Andrew Roberts

Give­away

  • Give­away ends: December 02, 2014

  • US Ship­ping Addresses Only

  • No PO Boxes

  • Win­ners will have 24 hours to write back with their address, oth­er­wise an alter­nate win­ner will be picked

Congratulations: jandeplus3@

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account

Man of la Book

A father, husband, avid reader, blogger, software engineer & wood worker who is known the world over as a man of many interests and to his wife as “an idiot”.

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